There are certain times in our lives when it’s easy to be known as a disciple of Jesus. And there are other times when we conveniently shove that part of our identity to the side, away from others' eyes… and even our own, so we can do what we know He wouldn’t approve of.

But that’s not what Christ called us to.

We know that when he said, “Follow me” and we said, “I will,” that it meant 24/7.

If we choose that our identity is in Christ, it’s permanent, not a something we can change like choosing a new outfit.

This is where John and Peter found themselves.

This psalm starts with a question: do the authorities of the earth judge correctly? In other words, do we look to what is on earth to be the final and most trustworthy execution of justice?

We already know the answer. It hasn’t changed from when this psalm was written.

No, we don’t.

But it’s not hopeless.

In the Old Testament, it was hard to miss the visual of blood paying for our personal sins. Sacrifice after sacrifice was made. Atonement Day would come with the relief that our sins were erased…. until the next time.

It was the way of the Law.

And the blood paid the price. It couldn’t be escaped.

“These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.”

When all these people died, they didn’t get to see promised things come true as of yet. They knew the Christ was to come, and they knew that he would do incredible things. And they looked forward to it. But when they were finished with life on earth, they died in faith, knowing that God is forever and his promises always come true, even if not in their lifetime.

They all saw extraordinary things that day.

Jesus knew how he would change their lives that day. They were amazed and marveled, but that’s not what Jesus came for. It wasn’t about temporarily wowing them. He came to do something that was much longer-lasting, something that affected eternity.

Not as the world sees it, but as God shows us in Truth - in his words and in his deeds in his kindness, tenderheartedness, and forgiveness towards us.

“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” Ephesians 4:32

Sin feels good. It follows every wrong instinct we have to blindly do what we think will make us happy.

So when people of the world follow what makes them happy and see that we aren’t following, it doesn’t make sense to them. Why would we deprive ourselves of that? Moreover, why would we deprive them of that?

Because when we call out sin for what it is, the right instinct of our conscious brings sin to light and reminds us – it’s evil.

The haze of the false sense of comfort fades away and we’re left with emptiness, the devil feeding on our destruction.

For us that see it for what it is by the grace of God, we want to be as far away as possible from Satan’s harmful temptations.

When we know something heavy is coming that we’ll have to take care of, the last thing we want to do is take care of something or someone else.

Jesus knew he was going to be murdered. And yet he washed the feet of his followers.

To the world, it makes no sense. But within the kingdom of God (the kingdom following the lead of the King), it makes perfect sense.

Our King is kind, all-knowing, and completely selfless. He cares for his own in a way no one else can.

If we ever doubted if we live in a world where God is present and with us, this psalm helps us realize the truth: He is still present. He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of his love. His word is upright and by his word were the heavens made. We may live in a world full of sin, but the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof (Psalm 24:1).

“For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; he puts the deeps in storehouses.” - Psalm 33:4-7

This is the “unboxing” of the July mailer with the August journal, “Planted by God”!

There are a few things that our Creator has let us as the created understand in a very tangible way. The idea of planting is one of them.

We can personally know everything that goes into it: we can gather seed, we can prepare the environment and plant, we can water and tend... and we can watch it grow, wither, or any number of things in between. Just like God gathers us, preparing everything for us, giving us everything we need, nurturing us and providing us with chance after chance to thrive.

The potential each of us has if we but let God work is immeasurable.

It has been that way for centuries, even recorded all throughout the Bible. So let’s see God’s plan when we are planted in Him, what happens when we choose to be planted elsewhere, and how we can stay rooted in God and flourish, just as we are meant to in Him.

This is what our everseeking subscribers are studying in August 2025! So let’s take a closer look at everything in the study and the mailer…

This is the “unboxing” of the May mailer with the June journal, “Traveling with Jesus”!

It is so easy to get distracted by so many different things. It happens to each one of us constantly.

There are the everyday distractions (the busy life that has us doing one thing and then suddenly needing to take care of another).

But worse are the distractions that we may not even recognize: the ones Satan uses. Because he knows that if our goal as Christians is to live for God, all he has to do is distract us from our goal in any way possible. He may even use things that inherently good – like Martha distracted with much serving (Luke 10:40) or even following the created rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25).

Jesus knows that it’s hard, that it’s a daily decision. And so he urges us: set your mind on things that are above!

It’s a mindset: our mind is set, determined, and protected as it remains fixed on things that are above. We don’t want to lose our way in the chaos of things on earth. We want to let our minds be at peace, safe in the presence of God. So let’s read more about it...

This is what our everseeking subscribers are studying in July 2025! So let’s take a closer look at everything in the study and the mailer…

For some, we love planning out our time.

For others, we like the idea of planning, but can never seem to stick with it.

And still others rather not plan at all.

But no matter which category we fall in, we’re all given the same gift…

…a precious thing called time.

It’s limited, and what we do with it matters. It echoes into eternity – for us and for those who God puts in our lives.

So when we stand before God in at the end, how will we answer for the gift of time that he has given us (similar to the talents given to the servants in Matthew 25)?

“Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.” Hebrews 9:23-24

Ever wonder why the Old Testament? There are so many times when we get confused when we read the covenant that came before Christ. And we have a tendency to dismiss it.

But Jesus himself said he didn’t come to get rid of the Old Testament.

He came to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17).

Have you ever stopped to think - what if God didn’t exist in the world? Or what if God wasn’t the God we know, but the clockmaker who did just create us and then left us to sin with no saving grace?

It can be depressing - until we realize the truth. God does exist. And moreover, He fights for us. We deserve no second chances, but God has given us countless chances until we die.

This is something David was very aware of… and so he wrote a beautiful psalm about it.

This is the “unboxing” of the May mailer with the June journal, “Traveling with Jesus”!

There comes a time in every Christian’s life when we wish we could have physically walked with Jesus - that we could have listened to his voice and seen him perform miracles. But even thousands of years later, God lets us get as close as possible. He gives us four accounts of Jesus’s time on earth! His presence is no less with us today than it was with the disciples then.

God is in the midst of his city, his people. God has always been with his people. And because he is, we will not fall. We will not stumble or lose the most precious thing in life: our relationship with God.

So even if we do not get to physically walk with Jesus, we have something better: God himself, his Spirit, within us. We never have to be separated from Jesus. We never have to worry about what life would be like without him. He was in the midst of them then, and he is in the midst of us now.

So let’s travel with Jesus, knowing this is our journey now as much as it was for the first followers of Jesus all those years ago...

This is what our everseeking subscribers are studying in June 2025! So let’s take a closer look at everything in the study and the mailer…

“Jesus stood up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, Lord.’ And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.'“ John 8:10-11

Of all of the encounters with Jesus in the Bible, this one is a favorite. Because the woman is us.

We were found in sin, in the act of sin, and brought to the feet of God. We were accused. The Law stood against us. God would be the judge. And the verdict is so obvious - guilty.

And so we sit at the feet of Jesus, waiting. Waiting for the judgement that’s to come. Waiting to be told we that have failed — again — after being given every chance.

But the guilty sentence doesn’t come.

This is the “unboxing” of the April mailer with the May journal, “Precious in My eyes”!

He loves us. We don’t have to wonder, “He loves me, he loves me not.” The answer is and always will be, “He loves me.” Even though others will try to love us unconditionally, we’re all fallible humans and eventually, something will happen when they can’t love us in the full way we expect and need.

But God can.

And He is constantly showing his love to us. Before we were born, he made it possible for us to be by his side forever. And as we walk through life, he wants us to know that each day and with every breath, he is beside us, walking with us through whatever comes. He came from heaven to earth for us. He gave himself in our place. He made sure that we would have no reason to doubt his love for us.

And so we read the words written by God to his people centuries ago - before He died, before we lived... but fulfilled in his death, in his resurrection, and in our daily lives as followers of Christ, all of these years later. So let’s read and see how precious we are in God’s eyes...

This is what our everseeking subscribers are studying in May 2025! So let’s take a closer look at everything in the study and the mailer…

“What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.” Luke 13:18-19

It can be hard to explain something that we cannot see. The kingdom of God… what is it like? We didn’t even have to ask Jesus - he answered our question before we knew to ask it.

And it wasn’t easy to explain. But the Son of God used many parables to try to explain what his kingdom was like. And this was one of the many illustrations he used – not a palace, not a mystical land, nor a selfish ruling – but a mustard seed.

“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭4‬:‭29‬ ‭ESV‬‬

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More times than we want to admit, we don’t think about the words coming out of mouths. Especially if we’re tired or angry or even just too comfortable. Words can leave a mark that lasts for years and decades in a person’s mind, their meaning changing how they see themselves or life in general.

And there are different kinds of marks. It can be something beautiful that you chose to be brave and share with them (or that was easy to say)! It can be something that came from a place of pent up anger and finally flew out of your mouth. Or it could’ve been something that was just carelessly tossed out in conversation - and then you wished you could’ve taken it back.

God knows the power of words. His Word is eternal, lasting long after creation falls (1 Peter 1:24-25). He is the Word (John 1:1). And by his word, the universe was created (Hebrews 11:3).

So when God cautions us to guard our words, we listen.

For those of us who have a Bible study routine, finding a way to spend time with God when we’re out of our routine can be difficult. And for those of us who don’t have a Bible study routine at home, we equally struggle with this issue.

So, whether we’re away for vacation, for responsibilities with work or family, or for anything in between, what does it look like to spend time with God when we’re away from home or traveling?

Here are three things that can help…